Fixed/absolute positioning neglected in iOS when focusing on input

Question

I'm building an app with Phonegap and I have a header which I have fixed to the top of viewport.

header {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 30px;
  background-color: red;
  z-index: 100;
}

This works as I want except when I tap a input field and the keyboard slides up. Then the positioning is totally discarded. The header is slided higher up outside the visable view. It returns to its place after closing the keyboard again.

I have read that some mobile browser don't care about positioned fixed and absolute to make sure that a possibly small screen don't get covered with a fixed element. Is this true?

Is there a way around this?

I have tried setting the header to absolute when a input is focused. I read about it here, http://dansajin.com/2012/12/07/fix-position-fixed/. However, it doesn't seem to be working for me.

Answer 1

PhoneGap’s implementation of fixed positioning for iOS is poor when it comes to the virtual keyboard. I’ve tried a number of proposed solutions, including the one you linked to, but none of them worked satisfactorily. Disabling KeyboardShrinksView can cause the input field to get hidden under the keyboard.

I ended up going with this workaround, which simply hides the fixed header when the keyboard slides into view and shows it again after the keyboard slides out of view. I await a more complete fix, but this solution has the benefit of being clean and reliable. The 10 ms delay on show() is enough to prevent the header from momentarily flashing in the wrong place while the keyboard is sliding back down. The 20 ms delay on hide() prevents the header from popping up in the wrong place if the user goes directly from one input field to the next.

$(document).on('focus','input, textarea, select',function() {
    setTimeout(function() {
        $('header').hide();
    },20);
});
$(document).on('blur','input, textarea, select',function() {
    setTimeout(function() {
        $('header').show();
    },10);
});